Nepal's ruling party facing uncertain future, claims co-chair Prachanda

Co-chair of ruling Nepal Communist Party -- Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda -- has claimed that the party's future is uncertain due to internal factions after Thursday's political upheaval.

Dahal made the statement during the second round of the Standing Committee meeting on Thursday after having a separate meeting with President Bidhya Devi Bhandari and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

"Today's meeting will be a historic one for the Nepal Communist Party. We are holding the meeting here at Prime Minister's residence but he is not present I had made multiple requests with him on the issue but he has been turning out from it," Dahal told the committee.

Since the unification between the two parties, the factions had increased inside the NCP forming alliance of former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, and KP Sharma Oli.

"I had also asked him not to prorogue the ongoing meeting but they rejected and went ahead with it. It is learned that they are bringing on an Ordinance which helps to split the party, I have made it clear that I am against it," he added.

Despite the ongoing rift in the ruling party, Dahal claimed that he is committed to protecting the unity of the party. "If we succeeded in maintaining it then it would a historic one," Dahal said.

Dahal and Oli share the Chairmanship of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) after the merger of the party after its coalition worked in 2017 general election in which it swept the result securing a majority.

Before the 2017 election, Dahal used to lead the Maoist Center and Oli led the CPN-UML (Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist). A formal agreement was made in May 2018 between the two senior leaders signing on a 7-point pact to form the Nepal Communist Party (NCP).

Dahal in the recent Standing Committee meetings had demanded the resignation of the Prime Minister for mishandling the pandemic and making unilateral decisions without consulting the leaders.

The next Standing Committee meeting of the ruling party has been called on for Saturday at 11 am as Dahal asked for a day's time to forge consensus with Prime Minister Oli.